I’ve just started reading the second volume of Dr. Nettles’s trilogy on the Baptists, and here’s an important word:

“When the church has wielded the greatest amount of worldly power it has had the greatest tendency to corruption and impurity. When it has sought to pursue its mission apart from any worldly power, and has instead endured persecution, it has manifested fewer errors and exhibited a more powerful and persevering discipleship” (19).